Birthday in Babylon
by JenniK
Summary: After years of separation from Morgan and Merlin, Jack and Annie are surprised by a sudden message for them to embark on another mission. Will they be able to complete the mission?
1. Chapter 1

Birthday in Babylon

Chapter 1

'Wake up!' Annie cried as Jack opened his eyes sleepily. He was having a good dream before his sister unceremoniously woke him up and it irritated him a lot whenever she did that.

'Whaaat?' groaned Jack. He squinted in the bright sunlight streaming through the window panes of his messy room and tried to go back to sleep.

'Jack!' Annie yelled louder, 'it's an emergency!'

Jack bolted right up and looked around, 'Who? What? Where???'

Annie giggled at his reaction and replied excitedly, 'What? Don't you remember? You're turning 17 tomorrow and we are moving to Dubai!' she stopped to stare at Jack as he groaned again, 'Aren't you excited?'

'No,' jack replied coldly and repeated, 'I'm not.'

Annie sighed disappointedly. Things have changed a lot after all these years. He no longer shared a room with her, and worst of all, they have never seen the treehouse in the woods in all these years. She tried to move on and forget about the whole treehouse and their friends, but Jack just couldn't forget about it. He still missed Kathleen and couldn't get past the fact that he would most likely never be able to see her again.

She walked to his bed and sat down on the edge of his mattress. 'Look,' she said tiredly at her brother who was staring blankly at his closet. He has been in this kind of mood for days already and she was sick of him doing this all the time. 'I know you don't want to leave but you must learn to move on. You need to accept the fact that we may not see them for a long time, and...'

'It's forever. I would never be able to see her again,' Jack mumbled half to himself. His voice got louder and louder as he continued, 'And you want me to _forget_ about them? How could you?!' Before he could stop himself, he blurbed out his final sentence hostilely, 'So do you mean that you would _never_ want to meet Ted again?!'

Annie stared wide-eyed at him, shocked from having the memory stirred up again by her brother. Tears flooded to her eyes and she hastily wiped them away. Jack too was shocked by what he said and looked away guiltily.

'I..I'm so sorry, I...'

'No, it's okay,' Annie managed a fake smile that felt more like a grimace to her. 'I'll meet you downstairs at breakfast, okay?' she said. She quickly turned around as fresh tears rolled down her face and hurried out of his room.

Jack continued to stare at the door after Annie has left. He closed his eyes sadly and cursed himself inwardly. No longer able to fall asleep, he frowned and sat up. He rubbed the lingering sleep from his eyes and looked longingly out the window at the woods. He sighed disappointedly when he found nothing, like he always did everyday. He blinked as he woke himself from his daydream and went to the bathroom to wash up.

After he was done, he hurried down to the kitchen for breakfast. He greeted his parents cheerfully and it seems as if the anger he originally had was gone. But Annie knew him well and knew that he was everything but cheerful.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

They quickly finished breakfast and hurried upstairs to pack. Their parents ushered them into the car and drove off to the airport as the brother and sister looked out the window to catch one last fleeting glance at the Frog Creek woods.

After they've finished everything at the emigration office, their parents rushed through the glass screen that separated the airport from the people who were saying their farewells. Jack and Annie stood just before the threshold, hesitating for a moment. They exchanged a sad glance with each other and hurried to catch up with their parents.

The flight to the United Arab Emirates was long and tiring. The family switched flights again and again. For some reason, maybe it's just an adult thing, their parents seemed unaware of all this and were always excited about reaching their destination, even if that means leaving their home for a long time. Whenever Annie or Jack complained about anything, their parents simply reminded them that it was the company they were working for that sent them there.

The weather was terrible upon their arrival in Dubai. Visibility was almost rendered to nothingness by the sand blowing in the air of their new city while the company driver drove them to their new home.

Under the cloud of sand, every structure seemed to stand solemn and alone, darkly silhouetted by the shroud of the light brown mass. The streets were empty except for the few people running for shelter. They arrived at a tall black building that looked like a thin and imposing finger pointing at the skies and taunting the gods. The dark windows retained the residents' privacy as their mirrored surfaces reflected blurs of sand that rush past it on the outside.

"Don't worry, Mr. Smith," the driver huffed into the scarf he held over his nose and mouth, "Sandstorms are never terrible here."

"What?" Jack's father yelled, "I can't hear you!"

The driver closed the door and Jack could see his eyebrows raise as he refrained from rolling his eyes.

"Mr. Smith, I just said that the sandstorms here are never terrible. Well, compared to the countries around here anyways."

"Oh...I see," he looked outside uneasily.

"And your windows are covered in a layer of non-scratch plastic. These sands won't damage anything."

"Then, what about your car?" Jack's mother asked.

"The company furnishes its official vehicles once a week and right after sandstorms. There will be no problem with it and thank you for asking."

The driver looked at the children sitting at the far end of the limousine and smiled reassuringly. He led the family into the building and returned to the limousine. Together with the building's security guards, they carried the family's luggages into the building.

The siblings rushed through the elevator doors soon after they opened in an attempt to escape the quiet giggles several women gave at their parents' Hawaiian-themed tropical beach outfits.

Jack flopped down onto the sofa of their apartment tiredly and Annie turned on the TV out of boredom. Their mom busied herself in calling their manager to inform him of their arrival while their dad searched through the kitchen cabinets for anything to eat.

"Hey son, I found alphabet soup. Want some?" their dad called out form the kitchen.

"Yeah, okay," Jack mumbled almost inaudibly.

His dad placed the bowl of steaming red, gooey liquid on the coffee table and Jack picked it up. He swirled the liquid around his bowl suspiciously and bits of vegetables and carrots drifted to the surface. Jack peered closer at his soup and to his surprise, he found only one letter. M. There were only letter "M"s swirling in his soup and he dropped the bowl in surprise. The liquid spilled over the coffee table, but instead of "M"s on the table, other letters lined the wooden surface. Annie peer over at Jack when she saw him drop his bowl and read the words that formed from the spillage.

"To save Babylon, find the code that was stolen, and look for the message within for the next step," Annie murmured. Her eyebrows were stitched together in a frown as she tried to figure out the meaning behind that message.

Despite the confusion they now felt from reading that message, they felt very excited since it meant that they were about to start yet another adventure to help Merlin and Morgan. But most of all, they would be able to meet their old friends, Teddy and Kathleen.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Their parents rushed into the room from hearing the commotion and as a result from what they did, Jack and Annie had to stay in their rooms until their mom had gotten over the fact that her favorite rug was ruined.

Earlier when they've just arrived, they found out that there was a door behind the bookshelf that connected their two rooms. Annie took her laptop from her room and crawled through the door to Jack's room. The new room was already resembling Jack's old room with all the trash lying everywhere. She pushed some of the trash onto the floor and took a seat on his bed. They discussed what each of them were going to research on and started researching for information on the internet.

Jack was the first one to find something. He typed "code" and the word "Babylon" into the browser and several results came up. According to the website he found, it turned out that the "code that was stolen" was the code or stele of Hammurabi, which was taken as plunder by the Elamite king, Shutruk-Nahhunte.

'Phew!' Annie sighed tiredly. 'How are we going to finish this quest if we can't even read the names of our stuff?' she exclaimed in disbelief.

'It's okay. Just...try to remember it...' he mumbled irately. He squinted as he carefully searched his computer screen for useful information. 'Oh!' he yelled, startling Annie who was busy braiding her hair in the corner.

'What? Did you find anything?'

'Look, Annie. It says the stele of Hammurabi was found in Khuzestan, Iran, in 1901 by the Egyptologist Gustav Jéquier, a member of the expedition lead by...'

'Okay! Okay! Just skip to the point.' Annie urged, 'mum might be checking on us anytime soon!'

'Right.,' Jack blinked as he raised his hand to push up his glasses just to find that they weren't there anymore. He finally got those nerdy looking glasses off and started using contact lenses a few months ago. 'Well, since that expedition, the stele was brought to Paris and is currently on display in the..._Louvre Museum_?!'

Annie couldn't help but gape at what he said. The message told them to look for the message within. They assumed that they would have to break it open in order to get that message. But if the stele is on display in the Louvre Museum, then how are they supposed to retrieve it?

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought of a solution. After a long pause, Annie looked up from her pacing.

'That's it!' she exclaimed. She quickly dropped to her knees and crawled through the door into her room.

Jack raised an eyebrow in her direction curiously. 'Annie always had her sudden "ideas", which often turn out to be impossible' he thought tiredly. He was about to turn back to his computer when a small brown box appeared through the door. Annie gave it another shove and crawled into the room.

She staggered to Jack's desk and put the box down with a contented sigh. 'This can help us,' she nodded at the box. Jack eyed the box and looked at her skeptically. 'Gosh, why do you always think my ideas suck?' she asked in amusement as she opened the box.

Immediately, the first thing he saw was the large gold "M" printed on the purple cloth. He gasped and Annie giggled at his reaction. She gently lifted the cloth from the box and gasped in shock at what she saw.

'It can't be!!' Annie screamed and picked up the tattered book. It was obviously a book of great craftsmanship, with gold letters and green satin covers. The book was slashed in several places and the gold leafed title on its cover was so badly damaged that they were illegible. Jack looked at Annie worriedly as she desperately tried to leaf through the few stained pages left in the book. She let the book drop to the ground and stared blankly ahead in disbelief.

Jack gingerly picked up the book and brushed his fingers lightly over its surface. He turned it around and found the only letter that was left undamaged. It was the letter M printed in the same gold as the front page. He looked sharply at Annie.

'You stole it?' he asked quietly, anger boiling up inside him.

Annie looked up and nodded sadly from her corner. 'But I thought we could probably use it,' she retorted hotly.

He was about to give her another angry reply when someone knocked lightly at his door. Annie quickly scurried through the door, pulling the empty bookshelf to cover her door while she dived for cover. He barely heard the click of her door before his father stepped into his room.

'Hey, you alright, Jack?' his dad walked in, surveying his room and its mess.

'Uh...yeah, dad.' Jack managed a forced smile. He suddenly remembered the cloth from Morgan's treehouse and quickly hid it under his books.

'Weird, I thought you were talking to someone.' he paused. 'Anyways, hope you aren't missing our old home too much.'

'No...but thanks dad. Oh, and hope mom isn't too devastated by her new rug.' he added with an apologic smile.

His dad chuckled and patted him on his shoulder before leaving. 'Goodnight,' he said as he closed the door.

'Goodnight,' Jack murmured. He narrowed his eyes angrily at the direction of Annie's room. He glanced at the clock and stifled a yawn as he climbed to bed, his mind clouded with thoughts of the quest, the code, and most of all, her.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jack opened his eyes to the glare of bright sunlight. A cool breeze swept by, gently ruffling his hair. It smelled of the sea, a smell foreign yet at the same time strangely familiar to him.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. All around him were trees; pines and firs and other evergreens surrounded by dense undergrowth. Large, grey boulders that were dotted with barnacles and limpets surrounded the protected cove he was lying in. Behind him was a forest and in front of the pale sand lay a gradient between submerging boulders and a turquoise ocean.

Far away, two seals were playing. They agilely chased each other in between boulders. Suddenly, the one that was being chased stopped and looked up at Jack. The other seal slowed to a stop near its partner and soon started heading his way.

Jack stared in amazement at the animals, until a large wave crashed into a rock nearby and covered him in a shower of salt water.

"Whoa!" He sat bolt upright and spat sand out of his mouth. He rubbed his eyes painfully and noticed that he had lost his contacts. He had remembered falling asleep not so long ago, but instead of his pajamas, he was wearing a grey hoodie – the old one that he had left back at Frog Creek.

Despite not wearing his contact lenses, he could see everything clearly. It was like the time he was in elementary school, when he still had perfect vision. He looked at the seals to find that they no longer looked like seals. The creatures' skins hung limply around their bodies, making them look more like people wearing extremely large wetsuits.

The seals laughed at his expression as they stood up clumsily on their tails. The one further away on his right flipped its head back and the sealskin fell off to reveal a girl with dark curly hair. She squinted as she laughed while shading her face from the sun. Unlike humans, her skin retained the porcelain complexion even in puberty and her deep blue eyes is void of the tiredness many students Jack's age have.

Having not seen her for so long, Jack only managed to gape at her in surprise. Kathleen's hair seemed a bit longer than before, but apart from that, nothing about her seemed to have changed. So much so that it seems she hadn't even aged since their last meeting. She looks the same age, if not slightly younger than Jack.

"Hey, gawking at girls won't help you get to them, you know," the boy appeared from behind a boulder. He had changed into his clothes and was handing Kathleen's dress to her as she moved behind the rock. He hopped nimbly between rocks towards the patch of sand Jack was on.

"Ted!"

"Long time no see," Ted smiled. He gestured for Kathleen to join him.

Greeting Jack hurriedly, Kathleen leapt from behind her boulder towards Jack, stepping sure-footedly only several times on rocks she knew were steady to close the distance between the two.

She landed softly on the sand in front of Jack. She stumbled slightly and narrowly missed colliding with Jack. He held onto her arm to keep her form falling and she turned away quickly, shyly covering her reddening cheeks.

Puzzled by her reaction, Jack turned to Ted, who only grinned amusedly. Ted had grown since they last met. He stood a great deal taller than Kathleen and around half a head taller than Jack. To his surprise, somewhere in the back of Jack's conscience, he felt a slight dab of envy as he looked at Ted's handsome face. Despite being almost the same age, Ted looked similar to the models that appear on fashion magazines.

Ted cleared his throat. "Welcome back," he smiled.

"Hey, we've got something to tell you. I–It's quite urgent," Kathleen said.

Ted took a small piece of seal skin from his pocket and firmly pulled at its edges while murmuring a spell. A fold appeared and he unfolded it. He continued murmuring his spell and unfolding the skin and more folds appeared at its edges. The skin gradually increased in size until it was the same size as his.

"Here. Wear this and follow us. We're going to Kathleen's home."

As soon as Jack put the skin on, he felt the parts of his skin exposed to the seal skin merging with it. Soon, he was forced to lie on the sand as his legs merged together to form a tail. Ted and Kathleen were waited as Jack got himself accustomed to his new form.

They swan past a jellyfish-filled cove and turn aside into a cave opening near the bottom of the sea. Inside was a winding tunnel with some areas with more than one exit. The tunnels occasionally opened to the sea, letting dim blue light into those areas of the tunnels. Kathleen swam slowly to make sure Jack didn't get lost in the dark passage.

Eventually, more light seeped into the tunnels and more seaweed can be found surrounding them on the walls. The tunnel widened towards the end to form a large basin pooled in white light. Kathleen surfaced first, followed by Ted and then Jack. Outside of the water is a scenery completely different from that of the cove. Soft green grass grew on equally soft peat all around a stone cave with a wide opening from which white sunlight entered. Small yellow blossoms formed the meeting grounds for numerous white butterflies.

At the far corner of the cave is a large flat boulder. Several mats carefully woven from dried seaweed were stacked on the boulder. On the other side of the cave, a pit lined with stones contained some faintly glowing embers. The metal pot on the side suggested that a meal was just complete.

"Kathleen," a female voice spoke. A young girl stepped out from behind the flat boulder and stared nervously at Jack.

"His name is Jack, Esme. He's not someone dangerous," Kathleen reassured the girl.

Esme looked about the age of a first grader. She looked strikingly similar to Kathleen.

Kathleen turned to Jack and said, "This is my youngest sister, Esme. She was not born into a human family like me, so she is gets afraid of people."

"You were born into a human family?" Jack asked.

"Yes, there was a great war at around the time I was born. Balls of steel kept falling from the sky and erupting in fire. There was no wood or soft material to seen; plants were burnt and even the weapons were all made of steel."

"Wait, and those balls of steel fell from planes?"

"Planes?"

"Metal things with wings."

"Oh yes, that was what I heard in childhood stories," Kathleen replied. She continued, "Soon after I was born, my mother left me with the lonely fisherman she was married to to join her sisters in protecting our home."

Kathleen looked at Ted and Jack and smiled. "Come on, don't look so sad," she said and laughed quietly. "We've never told each other about our past, so now that you know something about me, I think it's about time you tell me something about yourself, Jack."

"I–uh..." Jack stammered. "My life isn't as eventful, really," he looked down. "Anyway, so this is your home? It amazing!"

Ted frowned at Jack's change of topic and the disappointed look that Kathleen showed and quickly hid.

"Thanks, if it weren't for the help of my sisters, I wouldn't be able to finish it."

"Did she help too?" Jack gestured to Kathleen's little sister. He looked at Kathleen curiously, unaware of the disappointment she felt earlier.

"Of course," Kathleen smiled. The little girl

"Oh right, she's the same age as you, now that I think of it," Ted quipped.

Jack looked at the girl surprisedly. "So selkies are immortal?" he murmured.

Kathleen was about to reply when the ground shook. The waves that were crashing against the outside of the cave grew stronger until some water splashed into the cave opening high above the sea level on a cliff. Kathleen, Ted and Jack peered cautiously out of the cave mouth and almost tumbled backwards when a large wave hit the stones just below where they lay.

"Quick. We've got to close the cave now," Kathleen said.

Esme immediately pounced onto a large boulder near the opening. She fingers moved quickly as she untied the thick ropes tied around the boulder and onto another one on the cave wall. Once she was finished, Kathleen and Ted rolled the boulder towards their right and covered the cave mouth.

Right away, the cave was plunged in complete darkness. Everyone huddled together near the entrance as they waited the fierce winds to pass.

"Don't worry, it's like this all the time," Ted told Jack. "Something's going on far away in the world. Merlin and Morgan have found the origin of this disturbance and have gone towards it. They...have not returned yet," Ted paused after he stammered the last sentence.

Kathleen continued cautiously, "The reason why you're here, Jack – I'm so sorry for bringing you into this danger again, but...we need help. We would hope that you and Annie can bring Morgan and Merlin back. The treehouse was their vessel that they've used for traveling there and this is why you have not heard from us in so many years." Her voice shook as she said the last few words.

Jack looked at her worriedly. Through the dim glimmer of the water and wet boulders, he would barely see tears brimming in her eyes just before she rubbed them.

He contemplated the chances of success for him. He was always eager to accept challenges from Morgan when he still worked as a librarian for the treehouse, but in those adventures, she was always the one to watch over him and guide him to the goal. This is the first time Morgan or Merlin has ever needed to battle against something together.

Jack looked to his right. Esme was looking down and hugging tightly her legs that were curled up under her chin. To his left were the glimmer of Ted and Kathleen's eyes as they await his response. He thought for a moment and said, "I will help you. I can't promise that I will succeed, but I will help."

He looked back at his friends but found nothing but complete darkness. The sounds of water dripping and even their breathing were gone. He reached out to find anyone but found the feel of the ground underneath him to disappear. He felt himself beginning to tumble, he gasped, but could not breath in any air.

As he was suffocated, he reached up again and faintly heard Kathleen yelling his name.


End file.
